Labor Department identifies wage discrepancies in UConn athletic department

UConn will pay out just under a quarter of a million dollars to seven women — four of whom were part of the Huskies’ women’s basketball team’s staff in the 2013-14 season — after the US Labor Department found discrepancies in their wages compared to male counterparts in similar positions, according to the Associated Press.

The school will pay $249,539 to the women, two of whom are law professors at the school. The other five all work in UConn’s athletic department and are categorized as “Specialist IA” and “Special IIA” — former director of football operations Sarah Lawless and four members of Geno Auriemma’s 2014 national championship staff: Associate head coach Chris Dailey, assistants Marisa Moseley and Shea Ralph along with director of basketball ops Sarah Darras.

UConn claims the differences in pay weren’t due to gender but “complexities that were unique to those employees”, spokesperson Stephanie Reitz told the AP. The school discovered the problem on its own and already gave one unidentified employee over $90,000 in compensation, but the Labor Department still found “significant pay disparities remained ‘even when legitimate factors affecting pay were taken into account.’”

During the 2013-14 season, Dailey’s salary was a little less than $313,000 with “fringe benefits” while Ralph made $272,000 and Moseley earned $200,060.

No staff member on the UConn’s men’s basketball program held the title of associate head coach that year but Glen Miller was the highest-paid assistant at $312,600. As for the two other assistants, Karl Hobbs made $286,600 and assistant Ricky Moore received $259,600.

UConn will conduct a “in-depth analysis” of how its hiring process, adjust pay for employees if necessary and institute better policies prevent further situations of pay discrepancies due to gender.